FILLMORE, MARY ELLEN (NEE BABCOCK) Feb 22, 1934 - July 8, 2013 Born in Edmonton, Ellen spent her earliest years in rural and small-town Manitoba, moving to Vancouver in 1946 and to Penticton in recent years. A talented and classically trained musician (piano, organ, voice), Ellen was an intelligent, lively, and beautiful young person with an independent mind and strong sense of justice. Sadly, her life was shadowed and often darkened by schizophrenia and its attendant invasive and often ineffective treatments. She is loved and missed by her husband, Robertson Fillmore, and her twin sister, Pat Babcock McIntosh. She died in Penticton, peacefully and calmly. Her family is grateful to the wonderful staff of Trinity Care Centre who lovingly cared for Ellen during the last years of her life and to the staff of Penticton General Hospital who allowed her to die with dignity on her own terms. Ellen is not the only member of her 1950 graduation class to suffer from mental illness. She and her family would wish for more acceptance and understanding of mental illness, as well as wide-spread and available knowledge, research, and treatment.
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